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This review is spoiler-free.

I read the novel that this is based off of. I also watched The Untamed, which is the live-action drama that was based off of the novel. The live action was amazing. Watching this after the live action is incredibly saddening, because it's so bad I can't even get through it.

The story is 4/10. I rated it such because the pacing is absolutely awful. And the storytelling was not changed much from the novel from what I recall, which was written in an extremely confusing way that is much more suited for novels (and even so, the flashbacks were very ... confusing as a first-time reader). I was watching this with someone who had zero knowledge of MDZS and he was completely lost. All nuance was lost, and all the fun of the night hunts was extinguished. Everything happened too fast, and I didn't foster any feelings for any characters. So basically: Confusing, terrible pacing.

Art was 9/10. The animation was fun (a lot of 3D was used, but I didn't mind since some fight scenes were way more dynamic that way). The animation was pretty, and the characters were pretty (by the way, not everyone in the world was supposed to be beautiful, but whatever), but I retracted one point because everyone looks the same. If I didn't know who was whom beforehand, I'd have been very lost. I deducted more points off my "Character" rating for this issue.

Sound: I didn't give this a rating because I don't particularly remember anything, except the opening song and ending song since I listened to them a lot.

Character: 5/10. Like I said before, I didn't develop any feelings for any characters in this donghua (the Chinese word for "anime"). I don't care about the relationship betweenn the main characters, which is supposed to be most of the enjoyment of the whole series! I didn't care about Lan Wangji, I didn't care about Wei Wuxian, and I certainly didn't care about Jiang Cheng or his sister. There were so many characters and I didn't care about any of them. Everyone's back story and personality was glossed over. And just as importantly, it was hard to tell anyone apart. Their costuming was all the same (which was in accordance to the novel) but their faces were also carbon copies of each other. Terrible character design. So disappointed.

Since the pacing was so fast, I didn't enjoy the story at all. I'd much rather watch the drama again. I understand that they were constricted by time (instead of 50 episodes of 45 minute episodes, they really had to condense everything) but it took all the fun out of every story arc, and took the fun out between all characters. There was no fun. It wasn't even sad when it was supposed to be sad.

So, overall, I give it a 4/10. I don't know if I can finish the last few episodes because it was so painful to even get to episode 11. By the way, if you come because you want bromance, don't bother. There is nothing left, and I don't even understand why characters are even friends when presented this way, let alone anything more than that.